Bell: Rare honesty from Alberta bureaucrat

Stephen Lockwood speaks at the Alberta Legislature after taking over as the new Chair of the Alberta Health Services board. Lockwood apologized Thursday to Albertans for executive expense irregularities. IAN KUCERAK/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

Fred Horne, Alberta's health minister, signals the dollars for Alberta Health Services this year won't be what they spelled out in the province's five-year commitment -- a hike of 4.5%, hundreds of millions more flowing into the AHS kitty.

Horne doesn't have the numbers on what his department will be scoring in a Wonderland-no-more provincial budget to be rolled out March 7 but says the province is "facing a very significant decline in government revenue so it will certainly have an effect" on health care dough.

"Absolutely there will be an impact on the health budget," he says.

Your scribbler goes to Stephen Lockwood, the chairman of the AHS board.

He is a man quickly gaining a reputation for saying what's on his mind without the bull-crud filter firmly in place and the spin doctor feeding the pablum to him to feed to us.

Lockwood says he would have been "overwhelmingly surprised" for AHS to get the 4.5% increase. Then he goes further.

He says it wouldn't feel right to even make a pitch for the 4.5%.

Holy Gobsmacking, Batman!

Where is the usual outrage? Where is the trademark horror? Where is the apocalypse now?

Is he ... er ... even kind of upset there won't be as many cookies in the cookie jar?

"I wouldn't be angry. I wouldn't feel comfortable advocating for the full 4.5%," says Lockwood.

Why, pray tell?

"Because I don't believe nor do I have enough evidence to confirm we efficiently use all the monies we currently get."

Read that line again.

This comment comes the same day a new report ranks Alberta seventh out of the 10 provinces in getting bang for the buck from health spending, and last among the four biggest provinces.

Lockwood tells us he's number-crunched oil and gas prices. He knows there's a big hole in the books and it's not going to be filled in by the magic of oilpatch bucks in 2013.

He knows how much of the provincial budget goes to health care. It is the big ticket.

"They have to look at us, they just have to," says the AHS chairman.

Lockwood is expecting the 4.5% hike to be decreased but not be an outright cut to below 2012 dollars.

Health minister Horne says he's looking at everything and "can't give a categorical answer" on how the dollars and cents will shake out. He will have a discussion with the AHS board.

The message is not difficult to translate.

Horne points out about 41 cents on the taxpayer dollar goes to health care and this province spends more than any other province when you adjust for the age of the population.

He adds Alberta costs have been growing much more per year than elsewhere.

He feels "there's a lot we can do to improve efficiency in the health care system. We'll certainly be looking for ways to improve efficiency. We have to look at everything we can."

Where in the past, health ministers have pooh-poohed any report not making Alberta look top drawer, Horne doesn't go after the Fraser Institute study.

"It doesn't surprise me. It's in line with our spending patterns over the years," says the health minister.

"We've been more fortunate than the rest of the country in terms of our financial resources and we've put more money into health care but I think what the report is calling into question is: Are we really getting better outcomes as a result of that?

"There's lots of research out there that substantiates spending more money on health doesn't necessarily provide a better outcome. I think the report points that out."

Horne says family care clinics and primary care networks, where docs, nurses and other health professionals work together to provide medical care to patients, "will continue to be a priority" since more should be done in the community rather than in costly hospitals.

And the health minister insists his goal remains "to make sure Alberta Health Services has sufficient funding to deliver the outcomes I've asked them to deliver on."

How much is that?

"In terms of the value of the taxpayer dollars that are spent on health care, I think the report does raise a valid question and it's something we are going to pay even more attention to in the future."

Fred Horne, Alberta's health minister, signals the dollars for Alberta Health Services this year won't be what they spelled out in the province's five-year commitment -- a hike of 4.5%, hundreds of millions more flowing into the AHS kitty.

Horne doesn't have the numbers on what his department will be scoring in a Wonderland-no-more provincial budget to be rolled out March 7 but says the province is "facing a very significant decline in government revenue so it will certainly have an effect" on health care dough.